THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amidst the rhetoric over tackling Maoist insurgency in the forests of Kerala, around 14 tribal settlements identified by the government in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, which is situated close to the critical tri-junction between Muthanga, Wayanad and Bandipur National Parks and forms part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, are yet to be relocated fully by the state government although a central government-funded relocation project began in 2011-12.
According to the project started under the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2017, the state government has identified as many as 2,613 households with an approximate population of 10,604 from 110 settlements for relocation from within the premises of Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary to fringe areas with the help of Kerala Forest Research Institute.
The state government envisaged the voluntary relocation project in two phases under two options.
As per the first option, in case of voluntary relocation from sanctuaries, national parks and tiger reserves, each family is given a consolidated compensation of Rs 10 lakh.
Resettlement is the responsibility of the individual.
The second option offers resettlement by providing land and cost of development along the forest boundary, subject to the norms under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Out of the total 2,486 residents ‘eligible families’ who are willing to relocate from the sanctuary, 2,038 families have opted for the first option while 447 families have opted for the second one.
And the phase one was launched in 2012 which consists of relocating around 800 eligible families from 14 settlements for which a cost of Rs 80 crore is required.
As per the statistics available with the Forest Department, as many as 339 eligible families were relocated so far (latest inputs reveal that it would be around 400 now) for which Rs 33.86 crore was spent.
To relocate the remaining families, around Rs 28.90 crore is required additionally.
As per the understanding between the state and the centre, the union government has to provide 60 per cent of the cost (Rs 17.34 crore) and 40 per cent (Rs 11.56 crore) by the state government.
In the previously sanctioned fund, around Rs 1.62 crore is yet to be spent by the authorities.
N Badusha, president of Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti, who is also the member of the district level implementation committee of the project, said, “The project has still miles to go in terms of relocating the entire tribal families from the sanctuary, for which KFRI is entrusted with the task of holding a second round of study. The state and centre should take immediate steps to complete phase one of the project.”
Further, the authorities also have to consider other humanitarian aspects while taking forward the project.
For instance, the compensation amount was fixed almost a decade ago and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge over 10 years. So, the compensation amount has to be revised in tune with the time and, in some cases, it has to be dealt with separately.
For instance, in Chettiyalathur settlement, around seven families possess several acres of cultivable land. In such cases, the compensation amount of Rs 10 lakh is too insufficient.
Though a representation was given to the state government to consider such cases separately, a final decision is yet to be arrived at, he added.
Above all, the lack of coordination between various departments is causing immense problems for the project.
So, the state government should immediately address the issues at the earliest as many of the relocated settlements are having good ties with the remaining settlements in the sanctuary, he said.